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House turns back call for PMA probe

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PMA Group is a once-powerful lobbying firm whose offices were recently raided by the FBI and which has close ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha.
AP Photo

The House on Thursday night turned back another call to investigate the PMA Group, a once-powerful lobbying firm whose offices were recently raided by the FBI and which has close ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha (D).

Twenty-one Democrats, including nine freshmen, voted to proceed with debate on the measure offered by Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R) calling for an investigation of the lobbying firm. Most of the Democrats represent fiscally conservative districts.

Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska — the focus of an unrelated federal corruption probe — voted with the Democrats to table Flake's motion. He was joined by Republicans Walter Jones of North Carolina, Dana Rohrabacher of California and Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, whose district abuts Murtha's and who has been an outspoken supporter of his recently embattled neighbor.

PMA is under investigation for allegedly making improper "straw man" donations to lawmakers. Murtha, who chairs the subcommittee that doles out defense spending, has had close ties to members of the lobbying firm.

Flake offered a similar motion last week, also unsuccessful, to cut any earmark directed to PMA clients in a $410 billion government-funding measure.

With respect to impeachment, how can Nancy Pelosi take impeachment off the table. But even more than that, I know John Conyers. I know John Conyers is a strong, proud, diginified man. How can he bend over completely and answer to Nancy Pelosi on . . . (her sentence was drowned out by applause).

"Millions of people in this o****ry and people around the world watched as the Republican Party established a new standard for impeachment. All you got to do is have a little affair on your wife, lie about it, maybe under oath lie about it, lie about it to the people. And what happens? $40 million gets spent investigating your lie to your wife and to all of us.

"That is the standard that has been set for impeachment.

"But lying to the American people? That's all right, according to the Democrat's values. Spying on inncoent American people. That's all right, according to the Democratic values. Starting a war and killing innocent people? That's all right, according to the Democrat leaders values.

"And so instead of us getting accountable government, and instead of us even having an opposition party that acts like an opposition party, we've got complicity.

The Republicans sure don't deserve to get back to a point where their on an equal footing with the domocrats if they don't get their act together and put up a united front. The dems managed to start investigations and probes causing Republicans to resign or go to jail. The Domocrats have $90K Jefferson of Louisiana, tax cheat Wrangle of New York, corrupt Murtha of Pennsylvania and don't forget Queen Pelosi of Calif. who gets her husbands canning company exempted from the national minimum wage.

My experience tells me once you have the FBI serving warrants they aren't going away anytime soon, congressional investigation or not. Duke wasn't investigated by congress and it certainly wasn't congressional investigators who found cash stashed in Jefferson's freezer. Why waste the time and money?

The problem with a Congressional investigation is the same problem we ran into with Reagan era felon Oliver North. If any testimony is given under even partial immunity, the chances of making a conviction stick are close to nil. Let the FBI and the rest of the Justice Department do their thing, and if they decide not to prosecute, then consider having a Congressional investigation.

This is the same reason why there is still no investigation of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Our tax money was used as kickbacks to folks like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

Right on! This Congress will spare NO expense to measure how fast Roger Clemens can fill a syringe. But the investigations that SHOULD go on including the Ponzi scheme called Affordable housing lead directly to Liberal groups like ACORN and Liberals like Frank, Dodd, Meeks, Waters and the biggest single factor - Mario "the wrench" Cuomo. He MANDATED half of all home loans go to low income apps. To meet that quota we see no income verification, no money down, interest only loans. Well, what could POSSIBLY go wrong here!!!???? Any investigation would severely FOUL their own nests.

My northern neighbors, Murtha's army of "racists" and "rednecks" (Murtha's words not mine), voted this numbskull back into office. Unfortunately, they are not the only ones who have to live with the results of putting this shady thug back in Washington.

The "LIBERAL DUMOCRATS" are circling the wagons. They don't want to investigate because the scandal goes much deeper than Murtha. He has already turned the military re-fueling air tankers into a fiasco. The military needs the aircraft now. But his "B.S." has delayed the project for years. He needs to be ridden out of Washington on a rail.

Face it. The yare almost ALL a bunch of crooks and cons. Dem and Rep alike. What the L is the sense of trying to get the crooks to investigate themselves. Harry Reid sunk a bill that would call for all earmarks to be accountable down to where the last cent went. I thought this was going to be the change administration. And now you have a pork laden bill with no way to track the money. Where is "MR. TRANSPARENCY"... you know the guy who fired off a "secret" letter to Russia. What happened to that.. how did that get sooooo quickly glossed over. Where is our copy??? This administration is NO different than the rest except for the fact they are going to sink us faster.